21.01.2017 - After breakfast, we walked back to the hostel and was looking for any packages that will bring us to Choeung Ek Killing Field and S21 Prison. There were many tuk-tuks available waiting in front of our hostel. Some of them belonged to the hostel as they had the hostel's logo on their tuk-tuk. I saw a package opposite our hostel, but unfortunately, the door was locked. It was only 8am.
Then, a tuk-tuk driver from the hostel approached us. He mentioned that the package only allows to visit for an hour per place whereas he will let us in for 2 hours and he will wait for us. He was charging us USD8 for 2 persons for the journey. I thought it was a good deal, until after at the end of the visit. He was not happy he waited so long because we spent more than 4 hours in both places and he did not want to drop us at the Russian Market. I told him that 4 hours were inclusive of the driving to the places as the journey to Killing Field took us 30 minutes to and another 30 minutes to S21 Prison. I was annoyed at how he cheated us which made me complained to the receptionist of the hostel. The receptionist agreed that 4 hours was not enough. One spends about 5 hours. She said she will tell the driver off. I hope that happens.
That dishonest man.
We reached Choeung Ek Killing Field after a 30 minute ride. It was located in the outskirts for a very important reason - so the killings are far from the town and the putrid smell cannot reach the people. It is recommended to visit this place early in the morning as it won't be too hot by mid-morning. It was a cool morning and cloudy. Like its name, this is a field and hence, it is an outdoor walk.
Choeung Ek (Khmer: ជើងឯក [cəəŋ aek]), the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge - killed between 1975 and 1979 - about 17 kilometres (11 mi) south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center.
Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.
Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site. Source from Wikipedia.
The killing fields document death. From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge soldiers killed 1.7 million Cambodians, or 21 percent of the population, according to Yale University's Cambodia Genocide Program.
A soccer-field-sized area surrounded by farmland, the killing fields contain mass graves, slightly sunken, for perhaps 20,000 Cambodians, many of whom were tortured before being killed. The bordering trees held nooses for hangings. Guides explain that bullets were too precious to use for executions. Axes, knives and bamboo sticks were far more common. As for children, their murderers simply battered them against trees.
The grisly memories translate into income. "Tourist dollars and capitalism are helping me come to terms with my country's history—and my own," says a Cambodian guide at the killing fields who didn't want to give his name. He lost his grandfather and uncle to the Khmer Rouge. Source from National Geographic.
A ticket costs USD6 which includes an audio. The audio has various languages. One is given a earphone, a small audio and a map of the field. The map numbers each location where we can press a number on the audio to listen to the description. In the audio, the narrator was one of the survivors of the Killing Field who managed to escape the torture. You can hear the pain in his voice.
It is odd that any tourists will play Pokemon Go here.
At the end of the visit, one can go to the movie room to watch a 20 minute video clip of snippets of the genocide. There was also a small museum with photographs of the officers involved, victims, and the organisation chart of Khmer Rouge.
This is the stupa that houses about 8000 skulls of the victims. The skulls were segregated to female and male, and the age group and how they were killed - by a hoe, an axe and various farming equipment.
It was a very quiet walk. Everyone was listening attentively to their audio. There are also places for one to sit and listen to the audio.
You may wonder how did Pol Pot managed to kill so many of his own people. During this period, the Americans were bombing Cambodia. Khmer Rouge army told the people that we are going to bring you to a safe place, away from the next bombing. The people believed they were going to be saved, and the streets were empty in the next few hours. They were then brought to the Killing Field. It is usually done at night so no one knows where they are going. To Pol Pot, he wants to kill to start afresh. And to Pol Pot (after the genocide), he said - I made a mistake. I want to understand why Pol Pot did this because he was a teacher in France and when he returned to Cambodia, he became a teacher too before he joined Khmer Rouge. I could not find the answer.
I did not take much pictures in the Killing Field to respect the deceased. I snapped a shot before I started the walk. I saw the mass graves and I don't know how to visualise such torture is possible. One can also see fragments of cloths during the walk in the earth.
I remembered one part of the walk where the narrator explained on how a speaker box was put in front of a huge tree (the tree is still there) and loud music of karaoke was played to cover the shrieks and screams of the people being killed. In the audio, the actual music of the karaoke was being played.
We were in the Killing Fields for 2 hours. During the ride to S21 Prison, my sister and I was discussing how is it possible that Pol Pot could do this. Could be during his childhood days, she said.
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